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Instagram's Hyperlapse app turns shaky video into smooth time-lapse
The videos you see on Instagram right now are rarely worth writing home about -- after all, most people just slap filters on them and cast them out into the social ether. As it turns out, the folks at Instagram have cooked up a new to create truly beautiful shareable videos with a new app they call Hyperlapse. In traditional Instagram fashion, it's a breeze to use: all of the heavy lifting is done behind the scenes, so all you have to do is record what's happening in front of you and choose how fast (between 1x and 12x) you want the resulting creation to play back. The end result? Some incredibly smooth, downright entrancing time-lapse videos that don't require a desktop to make.
'Samsara' creators Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson discuss the digital filmmaking divide (video)
We've set up shop in a conference room above Third Avenue in Manhattan, a Canon 5D trained on Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson. I find myself apologizing awkwardly for the setup, several times. There's a long boardroom table in the middle and a customary junket breakfast spread to the right. It's about as plain as meeting rooms come, save for a few movie posters lining the walls, advertising films distributed by the indie film company that owns the space. Hardly ideal for our purposes, but here were are, all clumped into a single corner, with the director and producer of Samsara flanking a cardboard poster for their movie, leaned atop a stand. It's not the welcome befitting the creators of a big, beautiful sweeping cinematic masterpiece. But they're tired -- too tired to care about such things, perhaps. They dismiss such apologies, clip their lavaliere microphones on over their shirts and sit down. Fricke motions to the single SLR seated atop a tripod, explaining that he used the same model on a recent commercial shoot. "We have a solid background grounded in shooting in film, and that just stays with you," he adds. "When I'm shooting like with a 5D, like what you're using now to shoot this interview, I'm working with it like it's a 65 camera. It's my frame of reference, my background. I'm just wired that way." The world of filmmaking has changed dramatically in the two decades since the duo first unleashed Baraka on the world, a non-narrative journey across 25 countries that became the high-water mark for the genre and a staple in critics' lists and film school syllabi.
The Engadget Show 36: John Hodgman, iPhone 5, Improv Everywhere, Samsara and the New Museum
It can be tough to shake the notion that art and technology are conflicting forces -- that is, until you're confronted by a concept that lives at the crossroads of these seemingly dissonant concepts. For this latest episode of the Engadget Show, we set up shop right there, in order to explore what it means when technology itself is a work of art. We're starting things off at the New Museum on the Bowery in Manhattan, where Tim and Brian will be diving deep into the "Ghosts in the Machine" exhibition, to check out pieces like Stan VanDerBeek's Movie-Drome, a dome dreamed up in the mid-60s that foresaw a world in which the viewer is bombarded by visual stimuli. We'll also discuss how the museum is harnessing the power of the web to open its offerings up well beyond its gallery doors. We speak to the founder and principal players of comedy performance art group Improv Everywhere about the role technology has played in the rise of the group and some of its most famous (and infamous) pranks. As ever, we're breaking out the Gadget Table to discuss the month's latest and greatest (and not-so-greatest), including the iPhone 5, Amazon's Kindle Fire and Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1, before Brian heads out to the private (annex) library of comedian-turned-deranged-billionaire John Hodgman to discuss how technology is impacting the publishing industry and his upcoming books "That is All" and "The Complete World Knowledge Boxed Set". While we're at it, we'll be speaking with the producer and director of the classic film Baraka and its newly released spiritual sequel, Samsara and paying a visit to the gang at Breakfast New York, who have worked with the likes of Google and Conan O'Brien to turn advertising into art. All that and the introduction of our latest feature "Ask @hodgman." Welcome to the new Engadget Show.
Massively's exclusive TERA lore: Five Tenets
Curious about the stoic Baraka race of En Masse Entertainment's upcoming TERA MMORPG? If so, Massively has a treat for you in the form of our latest exclusive lore entry from the world of Arborea. Despite their fearsome physiques and brooding countenances, Baraka are one of TERA's more scholarly races, and their barrel-chested bodies belie a gentle nature and pacifistic tendencies. It's not all bookworms and turning the other cheek though, as today's yarn by En Masse lead writer David Noonan demonstrates. When pressed, Baraka can be quite fearsome -- if cerebral -- fighting machines. Join us after the cut for a day in the life of Thuul, a Baraka archer tasked with defending his home against the horde of argon invaders.
En Masse discusses TERA westernization
Westernization. It's a word that gets thrown around quite a bit in regard to TERA discourse. Whether it's the latest producer letter or a fan forum discussion, there's no getting away from the "W" word when it comes to En Masse Entertainment's work on TERA. As part of the latest Race and Class series update, En Masse spends a bit of time hinting at what westernization means before indulging us with some new info regarding the Baraka and Popori races. We've also got a look at the Archer class, including a nifty new video, so join us after the cut for all the details. %Gallery-105090%
Discovery HD Theater thrills Baraka, Sunrise Earth fans with Lightscapes, Episode 1 June 21
Just when you thought we were all out of experiential TV, Discovery HD Theater has added Lightscapes, Episode One to its schedule. Claiming inspiration from Baraka and Sunrise Earth (seriously Discovery, where's that new season? Are we going to have to wake up early and go outside to see the sun come up? Don't make us do it.) it is apparently the first network TV show consisting mostly of timelapse photography shot on a Canon 5D Mark II. The gallery also shows a RED camera busy capturing 4K footage of Japanese media artist Akira Hasegawa's work, projecting large abstract images onto the 2000-year old Grand Ise Shrine. Ok, so it's not exactly 24, but it is the kind of thing we'll watch because it's in HD, so check the trailer after the break and set your DVR for June 21, 7:30 a.m. %Gallery-95013%
Baraka: first ever 8K HD restoration Blu-ray Disc gets ship date, reviewed
We already knew that at least one film was getting a 6K makeover before hitting a Blu-ray Disc, but before A Star is Born can even leave the studio, it's being trumped by Baraka. Hailed as a "transcendent global tour that explores the sights and sounds of the human condition like nothing you've ever seen or felt before," the film was shot in 70mm in 24 countries on six continents in order to provide breathtaking views of "wonders of a world without words, viewed through man and nature's own prisms of symmetry, savagery, harmony and chaos." All marketing hoopla aside, even Roger Ebert has exclaimed that this is in and of itself a "sufficient reason to acquire a Blu-ray player." In a separate review, the critics were flatly amazed by the visuals and the audio alike, and they blurted out the obvious by suggesting this as your de facto reference / wow-onlookers disc. Expect it to ship on October 28th for $34.98 (MSRP).Read - Ship dateRead - Review
